Best known as the Opportunity Expert based on my proprietary leadership methodology called, "the immigrant’s perspective” that defines the characteristics to be a 21st century leader. This methodology promotes the idea of leading through a lens of opportunity – that is enabled through a mindset of continuous survival, renewal and reinvention. That if leaders embrace the immigrant’s perspective, they will have a distinct advantage in business by being able to see and seize previously unseen opportunities, and opportunities others don’t see at all. I am a former C-suite corporate executive and entrepreneur of several successful companies – my firm (Glenn Llopis Group) is a thought-leadership, human capital and business strategy consultancy. We enable corporations to develop their leadership identity to further define and implement go-to-market strategies. Most of my writings, speaking engagements and consulting assignments focus on leadership, change management, Hispanics in America, career advancement, marketing diversity management, entrepreneurship, business development and turn-around operations. I am the author of Earning Serendipity: 4 Skills for Creating and Sustaining Good Fortune in Your Work; Why a Personal Employee Brand will Save Your Career and Your Workplace, Preparing U.S. Leadership for the Cultural Demographic Shift, Awakening the Latino Factor and Women Must Dive In, Not Just Lean In. I make frequent appearances on local and national TV, including CNN, Fox, ABC, NBC, and Univision. Circle me on Google+

Effective Managers Earn Trust Quickly By Doing 5 Things Well

Managers in the workplace have a unique role to play with multiple and continuously evolving responsibilities. They must instill a high-performance mindset while creating a culture whose foundation promotes teamwork and competitiveness for the betterment of a healthier whole. Additionally, managers must touch the business and stay active. More than ever managers must have just as strong of a pulse on the business (internally and externally) as those who are managing it on the front lines. Most importantly, managers must quickly earn trust from their colleagues to inspire team unity and collaboration that is centered on the fundamental principles of loyalty, communication and transparency.

The best managers get it: no explanation required. They are proactive in addressing the needs of their team. They go out of their way to be creative and find new ways to uniquely motivate each member of the team. They are always aware of moods, mindset, attitude, and engagement levels. The best managers are the ones who “take one for the team” and can quickly turn around times of duress into rewarding opportunities.

But in the end, it is the level of trust you have with your manager that makes or breaks the team, your performance and the developmental journey within the organization you serve. A bad manager can make or break your career. Equally, if a manager is ineffective at earning trust – the lack of team performance will speak for itself and turnover will become increasingly apparent. You can’t hide if you are an ineffective manager who has trouble earning trust.

Here are five ways to help you build trust quickly as a manager (or to help keep your manager on their game):

1. Build Rapport

Building rapport is no easy task. It requires you to be a great listener (not just a good one). Managers who are listening take good notes, are quick to follow through, and are responsible enough to proactively address your immediate needs and requirements to help you be more successful.

Effective managers are also good at engaging with difficult personalities and situations. For example, early in my career, I learned a valuable lesson: people don’t like having a much younger boss. Instead of viewing them merely as difficult people, I made it my responsibility to empower them and help them to be more successful. After they received their well-deserved recognition and bonuses, they quickly forgot about my age. If there was envy, it was converted into opportunity.

2. Take a Diplomatic Approach

Learning how to be politically (and authentically) correct is a requirement. This means a manager must always be mindful of doing the right thing – and at times making trade-offs in order to be given new opportunities and have greater influence down the road.

An effective manager exercises good judgment and knows how to pick and choose his battles. He is all about supporting the team and believes in consensus-building methods to create harmony (especially when there are many egos involved). Strong managers recognize that perception is reality and thus will play the political game accordingly to protect his team and mobilize their agenda.

3. Establish Credibility

Effective managers must establish their credibility (and I am not talking about past positions/previous titles). The most effective managers always follow-up, are true to their word, have a proven track record, and have a reputation of getting things done.

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Being a professional athlete and now an advisor for the executives, I learned that you have to learn how to listen to be able to inspire and make the effective decisions in order to achieve the highest performance from yourself and others http://wp.me/p2boiA-43.

A great post again. Trust and respect are key to building great teams and managers have to walk the talk here – exemplify this through every interaction. By promoting the feeling that every team member is unique and adds value, a manager soon becomes a leader for his/her team.

As a good complement to your post of Five things to do to manage effectively, I would like to share my post on Five things NOT to do when managing teams : http://blogbysuchitra.wordpress.com/2012/02/12/five-must-nots-when-managing-your-employees/

First class article . Always good to improve ones performance . I particularly agree with the comments on communication . So often good managers have failed because they were unable to get across their objectives .

Thanks for sharing your comments and kind words, Ronald. You are exactly right. Managers fail when they can’t effectively communicate their objectives. This is common, yet how to fix it – is what company still often ignore. Thanks again for engaging in the conversation!

Great information! And I agree! Looking back at my military experience, rapport building and listening cannot be overstated and it has to be genuine and consistent. Rapport building has to be balanced; meaning there are times to speak with the team lead and there are times to speak with the entire team. A team with strong rapport is able to recover more quickly; and potential setbacks can be viewed as minimal.

Thanks for your comments and support, Joseph. Your insights and examples regarding the role that rapport plays is extremely important (especially when overcoming adversity). Thanks for sharing and for participating in this dynamic conversation!

I totally agree with Joseph ! anyone who has had military experience will definitely know about what good leadership teamwork and collaboration is all about which seems to be anathema in the world of big business with a silo culture ! I have work for megabrokers with 5000 brokers in the same building and several hundred on each floor separated into countless departments that dont communicate with each other ! Thank g. that cloud technology has arrived !!!! no wonder one CEO of a large bank said last week I knew nothing, I saw nothing, I heard nothing ! Not quite as impressive as Veni Vidi Vici !!!

I actually just read a great blog post referring to an article written by Forbes! So I wanted to do some more research. I have printed these out to share with my team of managers. Thanks for the ideas! http://bearstaffblog.com/2013/12/13/what-makes-a-great-manager/